BMW presents Robert Rauschenberg’s BMW 635CSi Art Car at Art Basel Hong Kong 2026

BMW announced the presentation of Robert Rauschenberg’s 1986 BMW 635CSi Art Car at Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 as part of the BMW Art Car World Tour and the artist’s centennial.

BMW continues to develop one of the most distinctive projects at the intersection of art and automotive culture. At Art Basel Hong Kong 2026, the company will present BMW Art Car No. 6 — a BMW 635CSi created by American artist Robert Rauschenberg in 1986. The presentation marks the work’s first appearance in Asia and forms part of the international BMW Art Car World Tour.

The choice of this particular Art Car for Hong Kong also reflects a symbolic moment. Cultural institutions around the world are marking the centennial of Rauschenberg’s birth in 2025–2026. The artist played a significant role in the evolution of contemporary art and helped shape the transition toward American Pop Art. His work consistently blurred the boundaries between art and everyday life — and the BMW automobile became one of the most unconventional platforms for that exploration.

Rauschenberg described the project as a “drivable museum.” The BMW 635CSi features a visual collage combining images of historical artworks, photography and natural motifs. Reproductions of works from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York appear across the body of the car, including Agnolo Bronzino’s Portrait of a Young Man and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ Odalisque in Grisaille. These images were transferred onto the vehicle using photographic and printing techniques and combined with nature photographs taken by the artist himself.

The car became the sixth entry in the renowned BMW Art Car Collection. The project itself began in 1975 when French racing driver and art dealer Hervé Poulain proposed turning a racing car into a canvas for contemporary artists. The first example — Alexander Calder’s painted BMW 3.0 CSL — competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year. Over the following decades the initiative grew into one of the most recognizable collaborations between the automotive world and contemporary art, with artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney and Jeff Koons contributing their own interpretations.

The Hong Kong presentation takes place within the framework of the BMW Art Car World Tour, a global exhibition program organized to mark the 50th anniversary of the collection. The tour spans several continents and brings the cars to major cultural events and museum exhibitions around the world.

The setting of the premiere adds further relevance. Founded in 1970, Art Basel has become one of the world’s most influential fairs dedicated to modern and contemporary art. Its events now take place in several cities including Basel, Miami Beach, Hong Kong, Paris and Qatar, bringing together leading galleries, collectors and cultural institutions.

At Art Basel Hong Kong, Rauschenberg’s BMW will serve as the centerpiece of the BMW Lounge. Alongside the car, visitors will encounter a curated display dedicated to the artist, including a reproduction of his early work Automobile Tire Print from 1953 — a large-scale piece exploring movement, process and the visual trace left by motion.

The fair will also host a discussion titled “Robert Rauschenberg and the Velocity of Art.” Participants from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, curators and representatives of BMW will explore how the artist’s ideas continue to influence the relationship between art, technology and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

For BMW, the presentation reflects a long-term cultural strategy. The company has been a global partner of Art Basel for more than two decades and regularly uses the platform to showcase projects that connect mobility with artistic experimentation.

Nearly four decades after its creation, Rauschenberg’s BMW 635CSi once again attracts attention — not simply as a vehicle, but as a reminder that an automobile can also become a moving work of art.